Jim Lange, the first host of the popular game show “The Dating Game,” has died at his home in Mill Valley, Calif. He was 81.

He died Tuesday morning after suffering a heart attack, his wife Nancy told The Associated Press Wednesday.

Though Lange had a successful career in radio, he is best known for his television role on ABC’s “The Dating Game,” which debuted in 1965 and on which he appeared for more than a decade.

He also played host to many celebrity guests. Michael Jackson, Steve Martin and Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others, appeared as contestants.

Lange was born on Aug. 15, 1932, in St. Paul, Minn., where at 15 he discovered a passion for local radio after winning an audition at a local station.

He hosted that show for two years before attending the University of Minnesota and doing a three-year stint in the Marines, according to the Bay Area Radio Museum.

His big break on network TV came in 1962 when he was made an announcer and sidekick on “The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show.”

Later, after “The Dating Game” brought him national recognition, he also hosted the game shows “Hollywood Connection,” ”$100,000 Name That Tune” and “The New Newlywed Game.”

Lang also worked as a disc jockey for decades in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, and upon his retirement from broadcasting in 2005, he was the morning DJ for KABL-FM, which specializes in playing classics from the Big Band era to the 1970s.

“As much as he’s known for his television work, his real love was radio,” his wife said. “He loved doing local radio, especially before it was computerized.”

Lange himself once told the Bay Area Radio Digest that his favorite aspect of the medium was that “you don’t have to worry about lighting directors and cameramen or script writers and all that.”

“Good radio is still the most fun,” he said, “It always will be. Plus, you don’t have to wear makeup and you don’t have to shave.”

Lange is survived by a sister, five children, two stepchildren and four grandchildren.

As thousands gathered in Denver’s City Park on Monday to celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., speakers didn’t mince words: King’s message was not only about love and unity, they said, but it was about fighting for freedom and equality for everyone.